


Overture, Alejandro

by luluwithan_u



Series: Atlas I (Sleeping At Last) x Dimension 20 [1]
Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, New York, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:22:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25102357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luluwithan_u/pseuds/luluwithan_u
Summary: **THE UNSLEEPING CITY SPOILERS**Alejandro discovers something about the universe.
Relationships: Alejandro Ortiz/Esmeralda Ortiz
Series: Atlas I (Sleeping At Last) x Dimension 20 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1824691
Comments: 3
Kudos: 4





	Overture, Alejandro

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is the first of a series of one-shots inspired by Sleeping At Last's Atlas I, so you might want to listen to the album as you go! I'll be doing various characters throughout all the three main seasons of D20, I hope you guys like it <3

[ _“And when every constellation suddenly appeared,_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqvedLA3L70)

[ _Through telescopes and calculations,_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqvedLA3L70)

[ _The far was pulled so near.”_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqvedLA3L70)

I must have been but 20 years old, working at a bodega in Washington Heights. My mother’s friend’s cousins, which we just called _primos_ anyway, had immigrated a couple of years before my brother and I did, so they let us stay with them for a few months, trying to make all the bills and having lunch with their _abuelita_ every Sunday. I climbed every fire escape I could find in the neighbourhood, reaching as far up top as I could to look at the stars - how they would align and still shine in spite of the light pollution of the city, how we knew nothing about them despite seeing them every night, and how I, of all people, would always be far away from understanding their meaning. Always reaching out, and up. I came to the United States to find a better life for myself, and yet, between learning English and being unable to afford rent, it seemed like that goal was as far as… Well, as far as the stars.

But anyway, I worked at this bodega. Since I stayed up really late at night on weekdays, and was late for every morning shift they ever gave me, the _primos_ decided I would take most of the night shifts, and so I did. The lights blinked every now and then, and I left the radio on, trying to find the stations that every now and then played jazz or bolero, and that was most nights. The neighborhood knew uswell, and we were one of the last businesses open, so things around the bodega were always calm and neat.

The doorbell rang, showing that someone had come in, but I was bent over the radio so I didn’t look at the door. It was a moment before I turned around, and, when I did, the bodega was empty.

“Strange.” I said out loud, getting out from behind the counter. “ _Júlio? Eres tu?_ ”

From the corner of my eye, I see a tail vanishing behind the last row of shelves. Uncanny - Júlio, my brother, was quite allergic to cat fur, so we didn’t keep any in the bodega. I rolled my eyes, and walked towards the end as quietly as I could. Next to our small fridge, then, I saw a cat sitting quietly, its chin up rather indignantly. It was a regular cat: brown and grayish fur, a little fat, and eyes that were two different colors.

“Come on now, shoo,” I said to it, waving my hands, but it didn’t move. “Come, if you leave fur behind I’ll never hear the last of it from Júlio. Shoo!”

The cat licked its paw a single time, crooking its head at me. “I’ll leave,” it said, in a deep voice, and I must have jumped five feet back, “if you come with me, Alejandro Ortiz.”

You see, I had seen many bodega cats before, but none magical, ever. This was… Insane. I thought I must be, too. I blinked hard, and shook my head. “Did you speak to me? In Spanish?”

The cat looked into my eyes - my actual eyes, deep inside them. Inside theirs, in return, I saw not just regular eyes. In the green and blue, I saw gleams and dust, whirlwinds of possibilities. They showed me the boat I came into the US with, and my last Christmas at home, when mother and father gave my brother and I the money we needed to finish paying for the tickets. I saw my sister’s quinces, and the beaches of home, and how it all was surrounded in light, in powder made of sheer wonder. 

“Come now, Alejandro,” was all it said, standing up in a posture far too elegant for any cat. “For you to meet your destiny, we must away.”

As the cat strode out of the bodega, I shook my head - it must be the exhaustion and the heat speaking. I went back to the counter, to turn off the radio and rest, but, as it was about to exit through the door, the cat looked back at me, demanding without words that I heed their call. I can't imagine what crossed my mind, but I figured it could do no harm. Best case scenario, I was dreaming, and worst, I’d wander around the neighborhood senselessly before realizing this was crazy and turning back home. I did not expect, in any scenario at all, that I would end up outside New York Public Library, after two hours of walking in the middle of the night, miraculously untouched by all the shady business in Manhattan at this hour in the 1940s.

“I shall leave you now, Alejandro,” the cat said to me, climbing up on one of the lion statues outside. “But my friends will take good care of you. Go ahead, go in.”

Something in the back of my mind must have known the library would be closed by that hour, but that thing was clearly too busy with the fact that it had just followed a talking cat through Manhattan, and was pretty sure it could hear the cat chatting with the lion statues outside. I finished walking up the steps.

As one would expect, the building was mostly dark. I stared at it for a few minutes, considering turning back, but, as I was about to, I heard a child’s laughter coming from inside. The front door slid ajar, a golden gleam passing through. _Well_ , I thought to myself, _you’ve already crossed the city. What harm will it do?_

I walked into the library, and, suddenly, everything was alight - not candles or electric light, but, rather, everything was alight with dust and magic. The child I heard had been one of many playing in the ceiling of the library, her little dress flapping around in spite of gravity, her gleaming braids bouncing as she played with a large ball. Beyond her and her friends, the building opened up into a more ample area. I’m pretty sure my jaw must have dropped when I saw it, and I definitely remember taking my cap off at that point. Thousands of spheres of light, more than I could ever count, danced in between golden globes and rods. They were like live stars, the ones shining with purple constantly changing and collapsing onto themselves, the golden gleams steadier, shining with an ever so comforting pulse. In some places, they crashed, and, in others, they repelled each other like magnets. Right in the center, two of them circled each other in a never-ending pursuit, all around an enormous globe of our earth, lit with the same two energies. And sat alone in the middle of all the cosmic beauty and wonders, of all the spinning rods and purple and golden microcosmi of light, was the most beautiful woman I would ever see. 

She looked up from the heavy tome in front of her, twinkling with light, and smiled at me. Her black curly hair fell all over her face, and I could see the enthusiasm in her eyes.

“La Gran Gata brought you?” She asked, simply.

“I… I think so,” was all I could respond before walking closer to her. “Are you… Real? Do you see all of this?”

“Very real,” she said, pulling a chair for me. “There’s a lot more I can show you, too. A lot to be discovered.”

I slowly sat down, my eyes darting between her and the wondrous ceiling of the library. After a couple of seconds, I put my hand out to her. “Sorry, my manners - I’m… Alejandro Ortiz.”

“Nice to meet you, Alejandro,” she said, then took my hand. “I’m Esmeralda.”

Her hand in mine was comfortable, warm, and soft. Amidst all of it, all the insane things I had seen, Esmeralda _felt_ real. I think I might have known, even back then, that she was going to remain the most real thing for me until her last day on this Earth - and now, falling into darkness, hoping I’ve helped my friends enough, I know she has been so until my last day too. The world fades, but she doesn’t. I close my eyes, and feel her appearing by my side, holding my hand tightly. My universe would end and begin again, the same ways it always would - with my eyes closed.

_“It starts with our eyes well-acquainted to the dark.”_


End file.
